The remaining employees in this department are Stenographers; Messengers, who carry money and securities to and from the bank, to express offices and elsewhere; Office Boys, who run errands, file letters and attend to various duties assigned to them. The Janitor and the Porters, though having to do with the whole institution, are most naturally classed with this department. The Porters stand at the doors to direct customers to the proper offices or windows, keep a watchful eye on persons passing in and out of the bank, and are on hand for any service demanded of them. Frequently the same persons act as Porters and as Messengers.

THE WORK OF THE TRUST DEPARTMENT.

The trust department-which is semi-legal in the character of its work, and which is the department of specialties-is divided into two sub-departments, one of which devotes its attention to trust work involving the affairs of corporations, while the other is engaged in the handling of estates and probate business. Some companies make three departments by putting the work of transfer agent and registrar into the hands of a separate department.

One Assistant Secretary has charge of the corporations division of the trust department. If not a lawyer, he must at least have thorough familiarity with so much of commercial law as concerns his work, and he freely consults the company's attorney as occasion arises. There is great variety in the work of this department, and the duties to be attended to on one day or week may be of a character quite different from those of the succeeding day or week. Now they are the details attendant upon acting as trustee under a bond issue; the next task may be that of acting as assignee for a large concern, mercantile, manufacturing, banking or other; again they may concern the re-financing plans of a corporation, the handling of a bond pool or syndicate, the collection of assessments, or the distribution of proceeds, acting as depositary under escrow agreements, the duties of a receiver, acting as depositary for a sinking fund, depositary of stocks under voting trust agreements, the payment of coupons, the transfer and registering of stocks or the registering of bonds, and so on. The general direction of these and similar matters rests upon the officer in charge of the department. A Trust Clerk acts as his general assistant, handling the details, figuring assessments and distributions, keeping the department tickler, and so forth.

The Transfer Clerk attends to the transfer and registering of stock certificates, and the registering of bonds, keeps the records of same, furnishes certified lists of stockholders and attends to such other matters as occasion demands.

The Coupon Clerk pays coupons as they mature and are presented, cancels and arranges and keeps a record of them, and returns them with statements at regular intervals to the companies concerned. Sometimes he has charge of all incoming and outgoing registered mail and express

matter for the whole institution except the banking department, attending to valuation and insurance on outgoing matter and keeping a record of same.

The Trust Bookkeeper keeps the records of the department and looks after such special duties as are assigned to him.

The Stenographer of this department operates a book typewriter, with which he makes entries, dictated to him by the officer in charge, upon the trust register and other records.

One officer-perhaps the Trust Officer or an Assistant Secretaryhas charge of that division of the trust department which handles estates and probate business. Like the officer in charge of the other division of the trust department, he needs to be familiar with the law as it concerns the work of his department. He confers with customers who wish to leave property in trust with the company, or to appoint the company agent or attorney-in-fact, or to name it executor or trustee under will, or trustee under agreements relating to life insurance, or who wish to employ the company to act for them in any capacity. His advice is sought and freely given to customers on various matters of semi-legal character regarding their estates. He has general charge of the estates in the keeping of the company, looking after them as he would after his own property. He confers with heirs and beneficiaries under trusts held by the company. It is largely through this department that the trust company develops that peculiar personal character that distinguishes it from the proverbial "soulless corporation." As guardian of the estates of minors and others, and in other capacities, the officer in charge of this department is often called upon to perform duties that bring him into close personal touch with customers.

It is a part of the duty of this officer to see that trust funds in the department are kept invested in ways that are safe and as profitable as safety will permit. Such investments are made upon the advice, either of a committee existing for the special purpose, or of the executive or finance committee of the company.

In some companies the Trust Officer is in charge of the whole trust department, the subdivisions of such department being under the charge of assistant trust officers.

An Outside Man in this department looks after the real property held in trust, rents the property, pays taxes, attends to repairs and improvements, assists in the negotiation of sales, visits courts to look up records and legal matters, and so on.

The Bookkeeper of the department keeps the books, in which a separate set is kept for each trust, as well as general figures showing the entire work of the department. He remits income to the beneficiaries of the various trusts as same is received or at stated intervals, has charge under the Trust Officer of the securities and papers belonging to each trust, collects coupons and other forms of income aside from the rents collected by the Outside Man, collects bonds and mortgages as they mature, keeps

the department tickler, renders statements to the courts and to others as required, etc. In this work he is assisted by the department Stenographer, who also takes dictation and attends to the correspondence.

The Manager of the Real Estate Department conducts for the company a general real estate agency business. His duties are similar to those of an ordinary high-grade real estate agent, being the purchase and sale of real estate and the renting of same, acting as agent in the handling of real property, the collection of rents, etc. Sometimes, with the advice of the executive committee, he buys property for the company, for the purpose of turning it over at a profit, either by sale in bulk or in allotments. Much of this business is of the same character as part of that done in the estates division of the trust department, and is frequently handled by that department, extra clerks being employed as needed.

THE SAFE-DEPOSIT DEPARTMENT.

The Safe-Deposit Department is under the direct charge of a Manager. His duties involve the general supervision of his department, but as this does not require all of his time after the department is once established and put in running order, he devotes considerable time to working up new business and to seeing that his department is kept fully up to the times.

An assistant keeps the accounts, makes out the daily reports and assists in the handling of customers. He has charge of setting the time locks and opening the vaults. In the absence of the Manager, he rents boxes and space in the vaults. He keeps record of all visits made by customers to the vaults or boxes.

A guard admits customers to the department, keeps his eyes open and gives general assistance.

In large companies, a trusty man is needed to call for and deliver packages. Special wagons, either automobiles or drawn by horses, are provided for this purpose by the most progressive companies.

A Stenographer in the department takes dictation and attends to duties specially assigned.

While the Night Watchman belongs to the whole institution, his most responsible duties are in connection with this department.

The Manager of the Bond Department is engaged in the investigation, purchase and sale of municipal bonds and other high-grade securities, his department conducting practically the same business as a firstclass bond house. He needs one or more clerks to assist in the work; but as his department is in close touch with portions of the trust department, the clerks of that department are often detailed to assist him.

The Advertising Manager is, as his title indicates, in charge of the company's advertising. The growth of the idea that banks, and particularly trust companies, may with dignity advertise and "hustle" for business, has been phenomenal, and has already reached the point where

these institutions are among the leading advertisers. Accordingly, the Advertising Manager of an enterprising company has an important mission to perform, and must be a man of experience in his line, of ideas and of industry in the pursuit of new and attractive ways of drawing public attention to his company. In his work he has the assistance of several stenographers, who prepare and maintain advertising lists and send out advertising matter.

Many companies now include in their regular force an Auditor, who gives his time to auditing all departments, preventing or detecting defalcations, seeing that the orders of the executive officers as to methods of work are carried out, suggesting to employees improvements in their work and devising improved forms, records and systems. He reports directly to the chief executive, or preferably to the Board of Directors, at regular intervals and whenever occasion demands.

An indispensable official in a trust company is an attorney, or firm of attorneys. Sometimes he devotes his whole time to the company, but more often there is a working agreement by which his services are at the disposal of any member of the working force, officers or employees, whenever needed. Some companies have an official known as the Office Attorney. Unless the Trust Officer or other official is an experienced attorney who is capable of passing upon legal or semi-legal questions which are apt to arise at any moment in the work of the trust department, it is of the utmost importance to have a competent attorney within easy reach. The duties of this official are, of course, mainly advisory.

CHAPTER VII.

FORMS AND RECORDS FOR THE TRUST DEPARTMENT.

T is a trite but eminently correct remark to make regarding the books

ple, clear and accurate as skill and experience can make them. The remark applies with special force to the books and records of the trust company, and especially to those of its trust department. Here is need of special care, because of the fiduciary nature of the business, because of the necessity of using the records as the basis of frequent reports to the beneficiaries of the various trusts and to the courts, because the history of business handled in trust for others ought to be complete and selfexplanatory.

The wise trust department manager will therefore see to it that provision is made at the start for books and records that shall approach the golden mean between the two extremes of too great fullness of detail and the unnecessary labor and time required thereby, and of too little fullness and detail, resulting either in fatal omission of facts that may be of the utmost importance, or in the waste of much labor and time in the work of supplying the omitted information.

To attain to such an ideal set of books requires large experience and careful study, together with a liberal endowment of "common sense." The records will be inadequate if they do not contain a complete history of all the essential matters pertaining to the trust; they will be cumbersome and unwieldy if they contain more than such necessary information. Yet it is safer to err on the side of too great fullness, if one must err at all, and it is better for the forms for the records to contain blank spaces for details which the intelligent bookkeeper may omit at his discretion in particular cases, than to make no provision to suggest such details to the careless, lazy or incompetent worker.

The matter of simplicity and clearness is of the greatest importance from many standpoints. The books ought to be simple enough to be understood by any officer or intelligent employee of the company, without the necessity of special experience or explanation. This has been learned by costly experience in many institutions. The writer knows of one case in which a company had a set of books so complex that the man who regularly kept them was the only one in the company, officers included, who could interpret them without much study. When he was out for lunch or away for the day, it was necessary to await his return to ascertain the simplest facts regarding those accounts. The books were devised by an expert accountant, were perfect from the theoretical standpoint, and were beautifully arranged by the printer, but they required an expert to translate them, and were soon discarded. Similar experiences have been